Christmas is coming around again, and it's time to think about that favourite family time. Dinner with all the festive favourites like pigs n blankets, turkey and cranberry sauce and roast, right? Well, but what if you want to have a more animal-friendly dinner?
Being vegan can be challenging at times, but even more when you want to reproduce favourites whilst still having in mind animal welfare and sustainability. If this is you, then I have some top-notch vegan recipes for you to try this Christmas 2021.
Centrepiece
We all have that centrepiece at Christmas dinner, something that's filling and very tasty. I have found that the best plate fillers for any vegan table this December are things such as Meat-free Roast and Nut Roasts.
Meat-free Roast
You can get Meat-free roasts at most superstores, but it's all about adding the flavour. Adding a nice festive herb and spice mix can spruce up a plain roast and give you a flavoursome bite!
I often use turmeric, paprika, garlic, a little lemon juice, rosemary, ginger, a little soy sauce (believe me, it's so good), and salt and pepper. I use a similar mix for most basting, variating a bit on some herbs and spices.
Add a vegetable stock cube, some oil (coconut is recommended) and put them all together in a dish with your Roast. This would work perfectly with Tofu, Tempeh, Seitan or other plain alternatives.
Next, cover with foil and cook on low in the oven, lidded pan or slow cooker. If you want to add some crisp, you can make a crumb with flour and vegan butter, add cornflour, garlic, salt, etc., and dip the Roast in melted vegan butter before to help bind the crumb to the Roast. Then fry off in oil or brush oil on the exterior and cook in the oven.
Nut Roast
Nut roast is a delicious but filling main for your dinner. It has a nice festive flavour whilst being animal friendly.
Preparing it is similar to making your own stuffing. It consists of chopped or blended nuts, various chopped vegetables, some fruit and seasoning.
Following along with a recipe online, you’ll see that ingredients may vary but, at the end of the day, it’s best adjusted to your preferred flavour. You can make your own alterations, adding certain nuts or choosing to skip fruit to make it less sweet.
If you prefer a cruncher meal, you can cook it in smaller portions to allow a more crisp-like finish. Get inspired with this recipe by Belle Rivas in Vegan Society.
Scrumptious Sides
Vegan Sausages in Blankets
A creation of my own, these Vegan Sausages in Blankets are a great alternative to the favourite Pigs N Blankets. Vegan sausages are usually very tasty on their own but add a blanket and marinate them, and they're revolutionary.
First of all, cut the courgette into long thin slices (peeler recommended) and wrap them around the sausages.
Then, make the sauce/marinade, which consists of:
1:1 soya sauce and oil;
Basil
Paprika
Salt
cracked black pepper
Ginger
lemon juice
tomato puree
garlic (fresh or granulated)
vegetable stock cube
And, of course, love.
Give it a good old mix and stick it in a dish on a preheated oven at 200 degrees (180 fan oven) for 25 minutes.
Recoat and turn them halfway, and take them out when they look to your liking.
With this recipe, you can use various blankets. Get creative! Try using carrot, aubergine, vegan fake-on (vegan fake bacon). The sky's the limit!.
Yummy Sprouts
I've never personally been a fan of sprouts, but if you cook them right, they're delicious. Flavouring is important as usual. But also adding something such as fake-on (vegan fake bacon) or a type of onion will make the difference.
So, to prepare them, first, boil the sprouts with a stock cube for 10 minutes.
At the same time, fry some red onion, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and some oil. Transfer the sprouts and fry until a little crispy. No need to use too much oil, but it certainly makes for a taster sprout!
Roasties
Now one of my favourites, roasties. And because there's nothing worse than soggy flavourless roasties, I've got a process that will make them delicious!
First of all, boil your roasties (peeled or unpeeled) with a vegetable stock cube until soft. Then, drain and mix in with season mix.
The season mix ingredients are:
Plain or cornflour (portion depends on amount - enough to coat the potatoes)
Salt and pepper
A little nutritional yeast
Garlic
Rosemary and thyme
Ginger
Turmeric, and love, of course.
Pop them on a tray, drizzle oil over all the potatoes and cook in a preheated oven at 210 degrees (190 fan oven) for 20 minutes –halfway through, check and turn.
This recipe is genuinely delicious and can be done with any veggies, with more or less oil, and with various herbs and spices, depending on the occasion!
Yorkshire Puds
It's fairly easy to go out and buy Yorkshire Pudding, but it's also very easy to make them. They're simple but tasty and made with just 5 ingredients.
All you need is a simple batter of just self-raising flour, baking powder, unsweetened soya milk, water and oil, cooked for only 30 minutes. And that’s it!
You can make it your own, and add a little herbs and spices and even use unsweetened oat milk for a creamier taste. Get inspired with this BBC Good Food Yorkshire Puddings recipe by Sophie Goodwin.
Gravy
The best vegan gravy is made with vegetable stock and the water you boil and cook the veggies in. But, you can also find various brands of granules or powder for vegan gravy, all vegan, like an onion gravy.
You can create it by adding the vegetable water and using some of the leftover sausage marinades, too. It’s exquisite. If you’re finding it too thin, adding cornflour can add thickness and can also change the flavour.
There are amazing recipes online for homemade gravy, like a Vegan Gravy with Port and Blackcurrant Jam by Jamie Oliver. For a simpler style gravy, try the Easy Vegan Gravy by Nora Cooks.
Delicious Desserts
Orange Brownies
Vegan brownies are one of my favourites, and to make them a little Christmasy, you can add orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Most recipes for Vegan Brownies give you a great basis for your brownie, so why not simply give it a festive twist? Try them with Vegan Custard; it will be a delight! Good recipes for a vegan custard and brownies can be the BBC Good Food Vegan Brownies by Cassie Best, 'The Best Fudgy Vegan Brownies' by Karissa Besaw, and Vegan Custard by Nico and Louise.
Loved Leftovers
We always overestimate the family at Christmas, and then, more often than not, there's a lot of food waste. If this happens, it's best to think of more sustainable alternatives for the food. I know that lots of people fry up leftovers as Bubble and Squeak, but you could even make sandwiches or freeze the leftovers for a later date.
Other ideas are to compost the leftovers in a cooked compost bin, separate from normal compost, as they need different treatment. If you don't want to keep your leftovers you can call your local homeless charity or use a food give away app like Olio.
This Christmas, we can all do our part to reduce waste and be kinder to the world whilst having a fantastic time together. Merry Christmas!
Loved this content?
Keep enjoying stories like this in our December issue:
